Corruptville, Florida May Lose Its Cityship
from the good-riddance dept
We've covered stories in the past about when municipalities begin seeing their governing role as one less about representing their people and more about extorting as much money as possible from non-residents. Previously, one Oklahoma town found themselves disallowed from enforcing their traffic tickets when it was discovered that the process had devolved into what was essentially a money-making scheme. Never one to be outdone when it comes to crazy, the state of Florida has upped the ante.
Hampton, Florida is the kind of town you might miss if you blink as you're driving through it. Miss it, that is, unless you managed to get ensnared by one of the most brutal traffic policing regimes this side of the border patrol.
And so it fell to the police to force hurried travelers to stop and savor the 1,260-foot ribbon of roadway belonging to this city. Hidden by trash bins or concealed in a stretch of woods, the officers — a word loosely applied here — pointed their radar devices. Between 2011 and 2012, Hampton's officers issued 12,698 speeding tickets to motorists, many most likely caught outside Hampton's strip of county road.Some context about Hampton, if I might. The town has less than 500 total residents, but has a police force of 14. Around 3% of their residents are officers. In comparison, Chicago has roughly 2.7 million residents and 12,244 officers, or less than one half of one percent of the population. Six times the percentage of residents as offered, for a town that consists of a three-football-fields sized strip of road. That must be why the town somehow pulled in nearly a quarter of a million dollars in traffic fines the past three years. What's less clear is how all that money is brought in and still the town operates on a deficit. The mystery seems less confounding when you realize that the town's mayor is currently in jail awaiting trial for possession of Oxycodone with intent to sell and that all of City Hall appears to serve as a sort of blank check for nepotism.
Jane Hall, the former city clerk, is the mother of the former maintenance operator, Adam Hall, who also ran the water system, and the wife of Charles Hall, a longtime city councilman. Her daughter also worked there for a short time. There were mutterings about vanishing city funds; personal use of city credit cards, trucks and gas; and trips to Ms. Hall's clutter-filled house to hand over cash payments for water bills for which she offered no receipts. Some residents were threatened with the loss of water — the one utility controlled by the city — if they made trouble, Mr. Smith said. Auditors found that 46 percent of the city's water went unaccounted for, much of it leaking through decrepit lines.On top of all this, the local police chief somehow officially added being a church minister to his official job description, an audacious merging of church and state that I would have thought would be enough to make Thomas Jefferson rise from his grave with a musket in hand to go have a chat with this police chief. In any case, all this coupled with the town's reluctance in providing any actual explanation for its misdeeds (at one point, town officials claimed certain records were lost in a swamp... seriously) has resulted in the state of Florida taking a look at de-towning the municipality.
"I have said it before: It's something out of a Southern Gothic novel. You can't make this stuff up," said State Senator Rob Bradley, whose district includes the city. "This situation went on for so long and the mismanagement was so deep, we have to seriously consider abolishing the government."Good riddance, Hampton. When you can't even be a town in Florida, you've clearly steered your ship into the rocks.
Hampton, a mishmash of trailers and wood-frame houses, some ramshackle, some not, has about 30 days to come up with a plan and make a genuine attempt to right itself or it will tumble into oblivion. The State Legislature would then take up a vote to dissolve it, handing over management of the city's one square mile to Bradford County.
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Sad Laughter
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My purposefully failed towns in Sim City 4 probably were better managed (3/4 of my Montreal island and south and north shore suburbs were well made but at some point it was too huge to give a fuck, which is why for once I welcomed the advanced multiplayer of Sim City "5".)
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The proper response is to "Place every officer, city council member and judge involved into a FEDERAL PENITENTIARY" for a minimum of 10 years!
That should send a clear message across the nation. Do not abuse your power... but we all know better than this right?
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You mean the town in Oklahoma that Tim mentioned in the very first paragraph?
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Re: Upper Midwest City
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Thank God you have to drive out of your way to visit the Hampton, Fl
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Many years of outright criminal extortion & RICO racketeering -- and the criminals involved don't even get a slap on the wrist... because they had 'government' titles next to their names.
The corrupt Hampton cops will just move to other cushy police jobs in the county/state. No real consequences for their crimes.
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http://goo.gl/maps/VL4LV
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You mean Madison; freedom of religion was his pet. ;) And actually, he was a minister himself at one point--it really peeved him to watch one group of Christians taking rights away from another.
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It's a long-time problem
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Juggled the boundaries just so they could do this
I am told by my elders that, long ago, the town of Ludowici, Georgia (also on US 301) became such a notorious speed trap that the state concluded that it was harming the tourist trade. The State Highway Patrol started holding up traffic at the city limits, then escorting people through the town. when you're getting escorted by the Highway Patrol you can't even stop for a Coke, and eventually the town backed down.
And to a larger point, why do city cops even have jurisdiction over a highway? If the city says they're only intersted in public safety, then they should have no problem giving the fines to the state. Right?
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Math
Are you kidding? Do the math. If they made $240,000 in extra ticket revenue but they hired 12 more officers than a "normal" town that size, the extra revenue wouldn't even cover the cost of the extra officers. The salary, benefits, and employer payroll taxes would have to be a mere $20,000 per year just to break even.
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I have to go through about three or four such towns when traveling from home to college, and in each one a cop is waiting to pull you over if you go so much as 3mph over the speed limit.
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A town that all the city limits signs ended in 4 for the speed limit, like 34 mph. Last sign on the state highway, downtown, hidden behind a telephone pole on the side walk at a red light.
The city officers all part of the same family, the cops, the judge, the lawyer, you name it. Speed trap city in which once arrested you were liable to come home separated from your belongings, as your vehicle was thoroughly searched and the fines would be at least how much money you were carrying.
The governor of the state erected to interstate sized bill boards outside the city limits warning travelers to beware in the city limits. They got white washed over twice until state cops were assigned to watch the signs.
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simpler solution
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14 is the minimum number of officers you can possibly have on a police force.
Think about it, if you have one getting lunch and one managing dispatch, how could you possibly have a dozen officers beat up an unarmed suspect if you have any fewer?
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This reminded me of a movie showing what can happen when townships go unchecked
Nothing But Trouble (1991) - Tribute
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Just north of Hampton on 301 is Lawtey, Just outside of which AAA Motor Club rented a billboard warning of speed traps ahead. Starke and Waldo (north and south of Hampton) are also known speed traps. I always go under the speed limit on this stretch of road.
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Real cities of interest.
Clearly you haven't been through Lawtey or Waldo in the past three decades.
(That was a city? This is a ticket? I was speeding? You made it through our public schools in less than 30 years? (nope, failed the "jeh-ee eh-deh-ey" four times and ranked through the "akah-demmy"; and "that", otherwise known as open air without a free, court-appointed attorney present, was indeed a "stop sign"))
/sarc
There are townships in Florida that have lost said "township" status due to this kind of bullshit (AS THEY FUCKING SHOULD HAVE), so this is no surprise.
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